Well-preserved' Royal priest tomb uncovered in Saqqara

CAIRO - 15 December 2018: An “exceptionally well-preserved” tomb belonging to a Fifth Dynasty royal priest was discovered at Saqqara by an Egyptian archaeological mission.

The tomb was uncovered at the Sacred Animal Necropolis in Saqqara. Antiquities Minister Khaled Anany announced in an event announcing the new discovery held on Saturday that the discovered tomb is to a royal purification priest named “Wahtye” from the reign of King Nefer Ir-Ka-Re.

Anany explained that the discovered tomb is exceptionally well-preserved and painted, with walls decorated with colourful scenes, showing royal priest “Wahtye” with his mother, wife and family as well as a number of sanctuaries with large colored statues of the priest and his family.

“ It is the most beautiful tomb discovered this year” Anany said.

Secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the head of the excavation mission, Mostafa Waziri, said that the mission uncovered the tomb’s facade during its second excavation season in November, but was unable to enter it at that time because the doors were sealed.

‘’ We managed to remove the debris from the tomb’s façade, a lintel on top of the tomb’s door was revealed, engraved with three hieroglyphic lines: the name and different titles of the owner, who was the royal purification priest named “Wahtye”, the supervisor of King Nefer-Ir-Ka-Re and the inspector of the holy boat’’ Waziry recounted.

Waziri added the tomb’s walls houses a number of colored cravings showing the name of the royal purification priest’s wife named ‘’Weret Ptah’’, and many scenes featuring “Wahtye” with his mother named Merit Meen and his family, in addition to scenes depicting the manufacturing of pottery and wine, making religious offering, musical performances, boats sailing, the manufacturing of the funerary furniture, and hunting.

The mission uncovered 18 niches inside the tomb displaying 24 large colored statues carved in rock, showing the royal priest with his family.

The lower part of Wahtye’s tomb houses 26 small niches with 31 statues of a person standing, or in the seated scribe position. This person is not yet identified.

Waziry explaining the Tomb's components - Egypt Today.

Waziri assumed that this person could be the priest or a member of his family.
The general director of the Saqqara archaeological site, Sabry Farag, said that the uncovered tomb houses a rectangular hall about 10 meters long from north to south, 3 meters wide from east to west, and about 3 meters high, with a basement at the end of the tomb.

Waziri said that the tomb houses five burial shafts, as well as two false doors, one belonging to Wahtye and the other to his mother.

A notable group of foreign and Arab ambassadors and members of Egypt’s parliament attended the event announcing the new discovery.

It is worth mentioning that a cemetery dating back to the 18th Dynasty (1550 BC -1292 BC) was unearthed during the excavation works of the Swedish archaeological mission at Gebel el-Silsilain Kom Ombo, Aswan, the Ministry of Antiquities declared on Thursday, December 13.

Waziri said that the undecorated tomb is located at a depth of 5 meters, and consists of a burial chamber and two stone blocks.

He referred that the cemetery was subjected to numerous theft attempts, which filled it with sand and silt; hence, the mission cannot assess the extent of damage that occurred at the site.

He added that the underground water filling the cemetery caused damage to the interior rooms and artifacts.